Hi my name is katherine. These are my opinion on art and other things.

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Field Trip #5

Performing Art at the Whitney Museum
During my trip to the Whitney Museum, my class was introduced to " Rituals of Rented Island" which consisted of artist who participated in The New York performance art scene from 1970-1980. Many of the artist referred to important social, political and cultural forces of the time. The issues ranged from American imperialism and the war in Vietnam, to sexual and gender inequality, to pop culture and is commercialization. In addition three pieces that I had a strong reaction to were "Vito Acconci", "Jack Smith", and "Robert Wilson".
My first encounter was Vito Acconci, black and white film "Claim 1971", it was 64:11 minutes. The video consists of Acconci, in a basement ,sitting in a chair, blindfolded, holding two medal pipes. He is trying to perform hypnosis on himself. As he is repeating the same sentence over and over to himself he actually believes it. What I would get out of this video is social importance, in the fact that he is naïve and believes a lie that he is telling himself. By him repeating the words, he come to believe it forgetting that it is a lie. Acconci mentioned how the Vietnam war, was related to this video. I think if I were to be in that exact moment in the basement with him, I would try to escape and if I had failed I would be hypnotizing myself.
Furthermore, my next encounter was Jack smith "Untitled. C.1977".Perfromance photographs and video experts 1972-2002.This was a digital slideshow that is 14 minutes long. Personally this one my favorite the two brothers were unique, they had one a nose piece, they were wearing an underwear. They were care free individuals. I would categorize this as socialize in that they don't care what people think of them. They relate to the cultural art scenes.They were part of a California movement in the early years of punk. That would explain their punk bad ass attitude. I think if I were in that moment, I would absolutely love it, being crazy, and care free that would my time to shine.
Lastly, the last encounter was Robert Wilsons, "Program for Overture". The film was originally 16 minutes long, but then transferred to 109 minutes black and white digital video. As I was sitting down on the chair I thought to myself " this video is really playing with my head", I was thinking that because it was a silent film. There was the teacher standing up not making any eye contact with the two older woman sitting down. People just came in and out of the screen and nobody would notice. They were not communicating It was very interesting, I got me thinking over and over on how what was happening. I would classify this art scene as sociable. I classify it as this, because they're are trying to make a point that communication is important for our society to function. What I would do if I were in that film , I would try to scream in silence of course,Iwould not enjoy being there at all.
Overall, my trip to the Whitney Museum opened up my eyes on how a particular field of art can impact a person and show them how our "past" can influence many informational art scenes, films, and art pieces.